Speaker: Dr Ye Wang
OPTIMA/University of Melbourne

Title: Economic Model Predictive Control for Water Distribution Systems

Abstract:
Optimizing pump operations is a challenging task for real-time management of water distribution systems (WDSs). With suitable pump scheduling, pumping costs can be significantly reduced. In this talk, we introduce an economic model predictive control (EMPC) framework for real-time operational management of WDSs. Optimal pump operations are selected based on predicted system behaviour over a receding time horizon with the aim of minimising the total pumping energy cost. Time-varying electricity tariffs are considered while all the required water demands are satisfied. In addition, we will discuss some theoretical guarantees on EMPC. We will show some results with WDS benchmark to demonstrate the effectiveness of the EMPC.

Bio:
Dr Ye Wang is an ARC DECRA Fellow and Lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne. He received the PhD degree (Cum Laude) in Automatic Control, Robotics and Vision from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-BarcelonaTech (UPC) in Spain. He was awarded the Best PhD Thesis in Control Engineering Award 2019 from the Spanish National Committee of Automatic Control and Springer, the UPC Special Doctoral Award 2020 in the field of Industrial Engineering, and a Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) 2022 from the Australian Research Council. His current research interests include model predictive control, optimisation and learning-based control with application to water-energy systems and autonomous systems.

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This event is Hybrid:
JOIN VIA ZOOM – MEETING ID: 873 1557 5255; PASSWORD: 778635
ATTEND IN PERSON – Level 8, Room 8109, Melbourne Connect, 700 Swanston Street, Carlton 3053
Please arrive a little early to find a seat

SEMINAR: WED 27 MAY 2026 16:00-17:00 (AEST, Melbourne Time)